The National Cancer Institutes Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) manage the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program cancer registries. Each year the SEER program reports information about newly diagnosed cancers including information about tumor staging. Collaborative stage (CS) was developed to collect the building blocks of stage with the idea that these building blocks could be converted to various staging systems. It represents a joint effort across the organizations that collect population-based cancer surveillance data.